Stopped Halfway Down
by maigonokaze
Summary: Prompt: "Kate/Abby, trapped in an elevator." Takes place during episode Bete Noir. Abby can't go to autopsy. She can't even take the elevator down to the basement. Kate goes with her to try to help her through her phobia, and the elevator gets stuck partway down. Femslash February 2016


Abby had only barely gotten to her lab when the phone rang and Ducky - considerably grumpier and more demanding than usual - barked for her to return all her evidence to autopsy. Abby froze. A vision of her nightmare, her body laid open on a steel table, flashed in her mind. "Send Gerald up," Abby asked Ducky.

In the autopsy a floor below her, Ducky hesitated as the terrorist hovering at his side shook his head. "He's busy," Ducky told Abby. "You'll have to bring it down.

Abby's heart skipped a beat. Her grip on the phone tightened. "You know I can't do that."

"I don't have time for your necrophobia," Ducky snapped.

"I am not necrophobic. Dead bodies don't creep me out, autopsy does. Ducky, please don't ask me to do this."

"You won't have to enter autopsy. In fact, you can't. We've opened an infectious body. Leave it at the door."

"I can't." Abby felt sweat start to pool on her forehead and a chill ran down her back. "I can't even press the down button on the elevator anymore," she insisted.

"Get Gibbs to do it," Ducky barked. "Stat!" He hung up on her.

Abby clutched the box of evidence to her chest. She reached toward the elevator call button, then pulled back, shaking her hand as though it had been burned. She couldn't do it.

Still trembling, Abby pressed the button to go up. Kate would help her.

Kate looked up as Abby approached her desk. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"Ducky needs all this evidence back in autopsy."

"Before you've tested it?" Kate asked.

"Yeah."

"That's strange."

"Yeah." Abby crouched next to Kate's desk. "I can't go down to autopsy," she confessed.

"Still? Abby, that dream was like a month ago."

"I can't even take the elevator down to the basement anymore," Abby complained.

"So you want me to take this down to Ducky for you?" Kate asked.

"Would you?" Abby looked hopeful.

"No," Kate replied. "But I'll go down there with you." She stood.

Abby picked up her box of evidence and started to back away. "No," she said. "I'll go find Tony, or…"

Kate took her by the arm. "You'll be fine, Abby. I'll be right with you, I promise." She propelled her toward the elevator. Abby dragged her feet, but followed her girlfriend to the elevator. She let Kate press the down button.

When the elevator door opened, Abby stalled outside the door. In theory, she knew this was no different than pushing the down button to go one floor down to her lab. But they weren't going one floor down. They were going two. To autopsy. She shivered.

Kate threw an arm around her shoulder and guided Kate with her into the elevator.

As soon as the elevator doors closed, Abby set the evidence box on the floor and turned to Kate. She pressed herself up against her girlfriend, her arms folded up against her chest in between them. Kate wrapped her arms around her as Abby rested her head against her shoulder.

"See?" Kate said. "We're doing fine."

The elevator light ticked down, and they dropped past Abby's floor. Abby looked up at Kate, her face paler than usual and her body tight with anxiety. "No," she said. "I'm not fine."

The elevator ground to a halt in between floors. "See," Abby insisted, "even the elevator knows I shouldn't go to autopsy."

"Or," Kate touched her gently on the chin, turning her face up to meet hers. "The elevator knows you need a minute." She kissed her. "So we'll take a minute." Another kiss. "For you to get comfortable." Abby was smiling at her now as Kate planted a third kiss against her lips. "And then we'll go to autopsy. Not even inside, just to the doors." Her hands roamed down to Abby's ass. "And then maybe we can take a long lunch today to celebrate."

Abby huffed out a short breath. She felt much better with Kate here, but she still was far from okay with going to autopsy.

"Just stop thinking about it," Kate tried.

"I can't," Abby countered. "I just, I _know_ we are going to autopsy and no matter how much I tell myself it's okay, or how much I try not to think about it, it's still there."

Kate turned them so that Abby's back pressed against the side of the elevator, just underneath (and out of sight of) the security camera. "Do you want to take your mind off it?" she asked.

"Well, yeah," Abby said. "I can't be scared about it if I'm not thinking about it, right?"

Kate ran her hands down Abby's sides to her waist. Her fingers slipped under the hem of her shirt, caressing bare skin. "Do you want me to help you take your mind off it?" she rephrased her earlier question. The purr of her tone left no doubt as to her intent.

Abby grinned, finally catching on. "Yes."

Kate kissed her and dropped to her knees. Kate dropped a row of soft kisses along Abby's lower stomach. She unbuttoned Abby's pants and eased them down her thighs.

Abby sighed and ran her fingers through Kate's hair.

Kate looked up and smirked. It seemed her plan to take Abby's mind off her autopsy phobia was a successful one. Her hands flowed down over Abby's hips and thighs, and Abby shifted, leaning against the wall and opening her legs.

The elevator jolted and resumed its descent. "Damnit," Abby hissed. Kate laughed and tugged at the pants pooled around Abby's ankles. She lifted them up over her knees, high enough that Abby could pull them the rest of the way up.

The door opened with Kate still on her knees as Abby zipped and buttoned her pants.

"Abby, I presume?" The red "no entry" light outside Ducky's autopsy flashed behind the man as he stared at them with unmasked amusement. "Autopsy-phobe and goth."

Abby didn't move. Her eyes fixed on the gun in his hand, pointed directly at her chest. She _knew_ coming to autopsy was a bad idea. She couldn't breathe. Her chest started to ache.

Kate stood and faced the man, shielding Abby with her body.

He regarded her closely. "And who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Abby's assistant," Kate lied. He arched an eyebrow and smirked. Kate flushed. " _Lab_ assistant."

He didn't respond to that. He used his gun to indicate the evidence box on the floor. "Bring that and come with me. Both of you."

Kate bent to pick up the box. She'd already identified herself as a lab assistant, she might as well play the part. Better he think his hostages were lab techs than realize she was an agent. Evidence in hand, she looked back at Abby.

Abby was shaking, her eyes closed and her body flattened against the wall.

"Ducky didn't exaggerate about your phobia, did he?" the man asked. Kate itched to knock that gun out of his hand and the smirk off his face.

"Abby," Kate called, all too aware of the gun on them… and that Abby couldn't just ignore her phobia because there was a gun. If anything it would be worse _because_ there was a gun.

Abby clenched her fists and took a half-step forward. Her own pulse roared in her ears and her stomach flipped over. "I can't" she whispered.

"Bring her," the man ordered Kate.

Kate grimaced and shifted the evidence box onto her hip so she could hold it with one hand. "I'm sorry," she whispered to Abby as she wrapped her free arm around her waist. "I know you're scared. I've got you."

The man stepped aside to let them through the elevator door ahead of him. Abby stumbled over the gap, but Kate held onto her. They reached the door to autopsy and Kate had to let go of Abby to open it.

Kate propped the door open with one foot and set the evidence box down along the wall inside autopsy. She spotted Ducky and Gerald seated against an autopsy table with their hands on their heads. She looked back. The man held the mouth of his gun almost flush with the back of Abby's head. If Kate were in Abby's position, she would have been able to duck out of the line of fire and then disarm him before he even knew what was happening. But she wasn't. It was Abby and she looked on the verge of passing out.

Now that Kate had two hands free, she reached for Abby. She took both her hands and tugged gently. Abby wavered, caught between her phobia of autopsy in front of her and the gun at her head from behind. Her fingers clenched around Kate's, her knuckles turning which. She took one step forward, and then another. She crossed the threshhold completely and the man followed, allowing the autopsy door to swing closed behind him.

Abby wavered on her feet for a moment, then doubled over and braced herself against the wall. She looked like she was about to throw up.

Kate didn't go to her. She watched the gunman, hoping that perhaps Abby would distract him long enough for her to reach for her gun.

But she found him staring at her instead, ignoring Abby. His gun pointed straight at her face. "When did lab rats start carrying sig sauers?" he asked.


End file.
